


Monstrous Defenders

by MissIF



Series: The AUs We Never Finished [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Creatures & Monsters, Dracula Zarkon, Frankenstein Monster Shiro, Gen, Scientist Pidge, Shiro is 3 years old in this, Vampire Keith (Voltron), Werewolf Hunk, Witch Allura, mermaid lance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2018-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-01 10:03:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11484081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissIF/pseuds/MissIF
Summary: Being anything but human meant sticking to the shadows, but it didn't mean staying alone or helping out a fellow monster in their time of need. When Keith and his group of friends get a distress call from a witch in trouble, they, meaning Lance, are more than happy to help. As long as they stayed out of the sunlight.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I love the troupe of putting my favourite characters into a classical monster role. The voltron kids aren't bad in this, they just aren't human, mostly. Leave a comment and tell me what you think!

The other week Keith’s life had been going splendidly. He and his friends had been living peacefully in the old castle, Lance sunbathing in the fountain, Hunk casing squirrels, Pidge tuning up the giant bolt in Shiro’s head. No angry mobs, no fires or bolts being shot at them, just peace and quiet. Then Hunk had been attacked by a cat, the thing scratching up his face, and Hunk ran at it until it was forced back onto the porch and outnumbered, only for it to turning into a mustached man. Go figure.

The cat-man, Coran he said his name was, was a familiar to a witch in desperate need of help from some fellow monsters. Lance and Hunk had jumped at the chance to aid a, as Coran described her, “princess” and Pidge opted to tag along due to her interest in studying the differences between science and magic. Keith had wanted to stay behind to avoid any chance of drawing attention to themselves, but Shiro had convinced him that it was better to go with them instead of staying at the castle by himself.

He kept his hood up to block the sunlight as they walked, “How far away did you say this witch was?”

“Not too far,” Coran said from the front of the line, “just a quick hope over the rapids, past the thorn forest, and through the haunted graveyard! Easy as mouse hunting!”

That sounded the very opposite of easy but Keith wasn’t in the mood to argue. Not in daylight. Pidge looked at him for a moment before calling Shiro over and asking him to stand with his arm over Keith. The giant complied and held his arm up over Keith, casting a shadow over his face. “Thanks,” Keith said. Shiro smiled and they continued to follow Coran until reaching the river. True enough the water was rushing past over rocks faster than horses, kicking spray up as it hit every obstacle, and causing the single rock tall enough to stand above the waterline to be soaking wet.

Coran smiled at them all, “Here we are, monsters. Hope to the tall rock and you’ll be over the rapids faster than a striking basilisk.”

“You’re kidding, right?” Keith watched the familiar, “Hunk and I can’t swim and Pidge isn’t tall enough to jump that far. The only one who might make it across that is Lance!”

“Shiro can make it too,” Lance said.

“Because he’s seven feet tall!”

“Guys!” Pidge yelled at them. “The river is only eight feet wide and the rock is halfway between that. If you can’t jump four feet, which I’m pretty sure is child’s play to you two, then Shiro can easily carry you across with me.”

Coran, in orange tabby form, jumped up onto Shiro’s head and waited for them to decide. Hunk looked to the rapids before looking down to his bare feet.

“I can jump that,” he told them.

They all turned to Keith, who shook his head, “Without anything blocking the sun I can’t turn into a bat and just fly across, I’ll just burn up.”

“Well then,” Pidge patted him on the back, “all aboard the Shiro boat.”

Lance gracefully hoped from the rock to the other side of the river, Hunk taking a few strides back before running to the edge and bounding to the other side. Pidge climbed up onto Shiro’s shoulders, Coran still on his head, as Shiro hooked Keith under his arm. The vampire was so very glad Shiro was built strong enough to carry all three of them. Shiro hoped from the ground to the rock, Keith keeping his eyes closed tightly, before hoping onto ground again. He set Keith down easy, “For my first time crossing a river I think I did pretty well.”

Pidge pinched Shiro on the cheek, “Yes you did, kid.”

Ignoring the brimming grin on Shiro’s face, Keith looked up at the tabby, “Now where to, Coran?”

Jumping off Shiro’s head the cat began walking into the forest, Coran not bothering to turn back human, and the monsters followed. Coran lead them deeper into the forest until the sun was completely covered and stopped. In front of them was a wall of thorns, big enough to easily cut through them all. Coran sat directly in front of a single thorn, the tip millimeters from his nose, and tapped his paw to the ground five times.

A blue glow spread out from the ground where Coran’s paw had touched and stretched out through the ground until reaching the thorns. The blue colour drew into the vines and thorns, climbing up the plant until a shining blue door stood before them. The rectangle was tall enough that Shiro could pass under it with ease, and wide enough to allow all of them to enter in a group, not one by one. Coran took the first step into the blue light, and vanished.

“Coran!” All of them yelled simultaneously. Pidge jumped off Shiro’s shoulders and fell to the blue door, “What the heck just happened?”

Lance’s mouth hung open, “What the-!? How did he? Is this a spell or something?”

“Can Coran do magic? Why didn’t he tell us he can do magic?” Hunk gaped at the door. Keith couldn’t add much to that logic, Coran was a shapeshifting cat after all, but he did notice Shiro staring at the blue light. Shiro seemed almost entranced by it, his head lolled to the side and his hand reaching out for the door.

“Uh, Shiro?” Keith spoke to him, “What are you doing? Hey, Shiro, don’t-!”

But he did. Shiro’s finger poked the light, and the giant vanished in a flash of blue.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The monster's adventure is about to begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to the commenters! This is for you!

Getting over the fact that Shiro had vanished before their eyes and the fact that the blue light was actually a teleportation spell had Hunk’s head spinning. Werewolves and magic did not mix. Like kibble and chocolate.

The second Shiro had vanished Pidge had thrown herself at the blue light, prompting Hunk to dive to catch her and Lance diving to catch him and Keith’s cloak getting caught on Lance’s anklet. This had lead to all of them vanishing in a flash of light, then tumbling onto grass and finding Shiro trying to reattach his right arm while Coran licked his paw to the side.

Pidge had been furious. “NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!” she yelled and smacked Shiro on the head with his own arm. Shiro muttered an apology while Keith loomed over Coran.

“What the hell Coran.” His eyes blazed red as he glared down at the familiar. Coran simply brushed his fur and lead on, the monsters begrudgingly following after him to the nearby castle. A few rose bushes and tombstones with some flowers and gifts littered the garden, some of which were interesting or new enough for Shiro to start to wander. He didn’t get far before a ghostly face popped up from the ground, scared the lightning out of him, and sent him screaming back to Pidge to hold her hand.

The castle itself was much larger than the one Pidge had been squandering in with Hunk and the others, its windows glowing blue and the white marble glistening in the moonlight. Not at all what the monsters were expecting a witch to live in. Hunk had been expecting a creepy shack surrounded by ghosts, or maybe a cave, with crawlers and bugs and creepy old talismans. Not a palace with trim bushes and glowing blue flowers. The “princess” witch was also not what Hunk had been expecting.

Generally when one pictured a “witch”, one pictured an evil old hag with a pointed hat and long fingernails. Allura destroyed that stereotype. Coran had lead them to the main hall of the castle and up a flight of stairs to an enormous laboratory where a young woman, dressed in a light pink dress and a white and blue robe with long curly white hair, was stirring a cauldron. She hadn’t even looked up when she said, “Coran, I need you to taste this.”

Ten minutes later and after some startled screaming on both parties part, the monsters had situated themselves around the laboratory while Allura inspected Shiro with interest.

“Amazing,” she muttered and looked at Pidge. “You successfully created life using only random decaying body parts and lightning? Not even my strongest magics are capable for creating something this sophisticated.”

Pidge smiled smugly, “Well I’ve always thought of magic as science’s little cousin, so there may be some technologies I could introduce you to.”

“I am curious as to why his arm keeps falling off.”

The smile vanished and Pidge cleared her throat. “Uh, yeah. That. I haven’t quite figured that out yet, it might just be that the arm was more decomposed than I originally thought or that the exposure to the lightning caused internal damage like cellular decomposure.”

“Have you thought about restitching the arm to the torso?”

“Every time I try they either fall out or tear.”

Hunk couldn’t count all the times Shiro used his arm to play fetch (glorious, amazing fetch) without Pidge’s knowledge. The pup probably didn’t mean to undo Pidge’s stitches, but the arm would fall off anyway. Might as well have some fun with it.

“Perhaps if you attached a new arm-”

“Hate to break up the conversation,” Keith interrupted, “but Coran told us you needed some help? What with?”

Allura looked away from the magnifying glass she had on Shiro’s grey eye. “A massive cult of vampires,” her eyes flashed to Keith, “has been attacking and draining villages. Their lord is a - well - a monster in more than just the physical sense. From what I’ve been able to see in my mirror he’s been allowing his subordinates to freely feed on villages unless they swear loyalty and obedience.” She crossed the room to stand before the large ornate mirror and waved her hand. A moving image of vampires in black and purple clothing cutting down villagers and burning down buildings. The image shifted to show a group of villagers kneeling with their heads bowed to a tall figure dressed in black and violet armor.

“He’s been doing the same to monster communities, killing off any supernatural being that refuses to serve him. He’s a tyrant and unless something is done about him then both human and monster kind will be reduced to nothing more than slaves.”

Shiro just looked from Allura to the mirror, confusion and curiosity in his brown and grey eyes. Pidge’s glasses fell off her face, her eyes wide in shock. Lance’s gills were flayed out and a few scales had fallen off as he body to the floor. Hunk’s fur was standing up and his tail was tucked between his legs, his ears flat on his head. Keith, unfortunately, wasn’t surprised. A great many vampires, the elder generation specifically, believed that as an almost immortal species they were the equivalent to gods and entitled to rule over the rest of the world. Some vampires, like Keith and the Blade, really couldn’t care less. They just wanted peaceful lives away from the humans.

“What are we supposed to do about it?” he asked. Honestly, in Keith’s opinion, if Allura wanted to fight a horde of vampires then they were grossly outnumbered. A regular vampire clan consisted of, at least, ten members.

Allura looked him in the eye, “We can’t fight them on our own,”  _ Obviously _ , Keith thought, “but if we can ally ourselves with other groups, both monster and human, then we may be able to overwhelm these vampires and stop their lord’s encroachment. I can’t do this alone. Will you please help me?”

Shiro raised his hand high in the air with an eager smile on his face, “I will!”. Almost immediately Pidge threw a clipboard at him.

“No you will not!” She yelled. “Look Allura. Shiro and I would love to help, but what you’re asking is impossible. No humans would even consider working with monsters. They spend their days running them off or burning them alive.”

“ _ You _ are a human,” Allura pointed out.

“I’m a human who believes in science, raided their graveyards, and built a monster out of body parts. They’d run me out of town just like the rest of you, and they’d die before teaming up with the things they believe want to eat them.”

“Yeah, I mean,” Hunk scratched behind his ear, “I know my pack will probably be up to fighting this vampire lord guy, but they won’t work with humans. Every time someone tries to talk to a human they either get chased out or rocks get thrown at them or they-” he shivered, “they shove them in a cage.”

“Yeah, same here. My family’s going to be a no show too if there are humans involved. Whenever someone sees one of us they fall into the water and drown and then they blame us for  _ seducing _ them into the water. Like it’s  _ our _ fault they never learnt how to swim!” Lance said.

Allura turned her head to Keith, who shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’m not part of a clan.”

The witch princess sighed. She turned to Pidge, “If we ask the monsters for aid and they agree, would you help convince the humans?”

Pidge looked at Shiro who nodded vigorously, and sighed before agreeing. Hunk and Lance agreed too, leaving Keith for last. He’d rather not, to be honest. He’d avoided other vampires for years now, and the few he had met over time were… well they preferred the shadows like he did. But if what Allura said was true, and this Lord was a threat to everyone under the sky, then they might be able to help. So he agreed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Allura the Teenage Witch enters the game! Who will be first to join in the fight against the Vampire Lord? Leave a comment and you might find out next chapter!
> 
> I don't have a set schedule for updates, school just restarted so updates will happen randomly.


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